Siberia - Yenisei River Siberia Testimonials Yenisei River From snow-covered crests through mountains and plains, forests and steppes, from southern latitudes to the cold Arctic Ocean – the Yenisei, the greatest river of Russia, flows. The length of the river is 3487 km. The Yenisei goes through all Siberia dividing it into two even-sized parts with western Siberia falling to the Ob River and eastern Siberia – to the Lena River. On its long way the Yenisei passes areas of different landscapes and climate zones. The river basin’s structure is very complicated: there are high mountains topped with glaciers and snowfields, table-lands carved by deep gorges, plains with slow rivers and flat lichen tundra. To the Yenisei’s left the endless plains of the Western Siberian Lowland lie; the forest-covered Central Siberian Table-land dominates on the right side. Therefore the river’s left bank is predominantly low and meadowy, the right bank is high and steep, often with vertical cliffs.

The Western Siberian Lowland scarcely provides the Yenisei with water: there are few feeders from this side and no big rivers among them. All the significant tributaries flow in from the right side including the Kan, the Angara, the Big Pit, the Stony Tunguska and the Lower Tunguska. That’s why the river basin is that asymmetrical: its right side is well-developed and over a half of catchment area is accounted for it while the left side, the one that borders lowland, looks like a narrow strip. A total of about 500 more or less big rivers empty themselves into the Yenisei with their total length exceeding 300,000 km. The Angara River connects Yenisei with the Baikal Lake – the deepest lake on Earth and an enormous reservoir of crystal-clear fresh water. In the depths of the Sayan highlands, at the base of the Topographers’ Peak (3044 meters above sea level), there is the narrow Kara-Balyk lake lying in a deep mountain kettle hole. This lake is the Yenisei’s cradle.

The bald rocky mountains tower around it, 800-1000 metres high like silent guards. The blue band of the lake runs for several kilometres. The crystal clear cold flow – the Biy Hem (the Big Yenisey), the river’s main headwater – breaks loose from the lake’s south-western end through the dam of moraine deposits. Powering through mountain offshoots, flowing down in rapids and waterfalls the Biy Hem eventually comes to a vast inter-mountain Tuvinsk kettle hole after having travelled over 500 kilometres. Near the town of Kyzyl the river meets with its “younger” brother – Ka Hem (Small Yenisei) – the mountain river that flows from the flanks of Sangilen mountain chain. The combined flow is called by Tuvinians the Ulug Hem – the Great River which is symbolic because the Ulug Hem is the biggest river of Tuva making it a truly great river for this region. And further, the river matches up to its name; the Yenisei, as we already know, is the greatest Russian river and one of the biggest in the world.

As if it got tired of its “wild ride” in the mountains the Yenisei slows down in the Tuvinsk kettle hole, the river valley gets broader and its flow break up into branches. This part of the river course is called “Forty Yeniseis”. When the Yenisei leaves Tuva it gathers its waters into one stream-bed. At this point it is already a large river, half a kilometre in width, which cuts through the Western Sayan offshoots in a deep canyon. The Yenisei is the most water-abundant river of Russia. It brings more water to the ocean than all the rivers of European Russia. The Volga’s flow is two and half times smaller than Yenisei’s. The highest water level in Yenisei is observed during the summer – from June to August. The Yenisei starts to get covered with ice in its bottom course in the middle of October. The ice-edge gradually moves up along the river-course and the Yenisei is firmly covered in ice by the middle of November. For almost half a year (in the north – a little bit longer) the Yenisei stays covered by a thick ice coat.

The river starts to break loose from icy captivity in the beginning of May. But it takes a whole month for the Yenisei to completely get rid of the ice. This is the time of the grandiose ice-drift. Big ice-blocks often get stuck at sharp turns of the river-course resulting in the accumulation of large masses of ice –ice-jams. They limit the flow leading to the water-level going up and the river overflowing its banks and finally – to strong floods. The floods at the Yenisei take place not only in spring but also in summer. The summer floods are conditioned by another reason – too much snow thawing high in the mountains and too much summer rains. The construction of hydroelectric facilities – Krasnoyarskaya and Sayano-Shushenskaya HPPs – has helped in regulating the Yenisei’s water-flow. If we call the Volga River the “Big Blue Road of Europe” then the Yenisei is Siberia’s grand water high-way. The river connects the Siberian rail-way that crosses Asian Russia west-to-east with the Northern Sea Route at the Far North.

Every year millions of tons of cargo are transported through the Yenisei and its tributaries. The basin of the river is rich everything. Earlier it was famous for gold and furs; now it is known as an inexhaustible deposit of coal, iron and other metals. Krasnoyarsk Territory is one of major timber-suppliers for all Russian and certain foreign states. The Yenisei river basin is the place where one fifth of all Russian timber is situated. Timber accounts for 65-70% of all cargo transported by the river. The main cargo flow goes from the Lower Angara to ports of Dudinka and Ingarka where the timber is shipped and sent to different countries. Apart from timber, the local rivers are used for the transportation of grain, fish, charcoal, ores, oil, construction materials and fertilisers. A number of powerful hydroelectric power plants are built on this great river and its tributaries.

trans siberian railway Siberia Call 0413 46 30 87 International +61413 46 30 87 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Sydney time UTC+10 Siberian Rivers Siberian Rivers (Ob, Enisei and Angara, Lena, Kolyma) Siberia is crossed by a number of very large rivers; all of which flow north, eventually emptying into the Arctic Ocean . From west to east, they are the: Ob Angara, the main tributary of the Enisei River Lena Kolyma See how these Russian rivers compare with some of the World's Largest Rivers , based on average annual discharge (sq. km/yr): 1. Amazon (6,923) If river size is based on the area of the river's drainage basin: 1. Amazon 8. Enisei 9. Lena So, these are all large rivers, but they flow north into the Arctic, and they were icebound too for large parts of the year.

Stalin, in his grandiose way of thinking, thought that maybe some of these rivers might be more useful if they flowed south. Thus, they would then be able to irrigate large portions of Central Asia . This idea was expressed as the Stalin Plan for the Transformation of Nature (Stalinskii plan preobrazovaniia prirody, Pravda, October 1948), which involved irrigation project, vast canals, dams, hydroelectric plants and drainage projects. One idea floated was to change river direction by a series of nuclear explosions. The plan was never carried out. Ob River The Ob (Обь) is the main river of Western Siberia. It originates far to the south in the Altai Mountains and winds its weigh northward until it empties into the Kara Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean). There is a large hydroelectric dam, built in 1956, at Novosibirsk, which created a huge reservoir on the river. Some of Russia's largest oil and natural gas deposits are found in the river's middle and lower sections. The Ob River in winter.

Angara River, main tributary of the Enisei The Angara (Ангара́) River is the outlet of Lake Baikal and flows through the major cities of Irkutsk and Bratsk before joining the Enisei River at Strelka. The river is one of the world's greatest sources of hydroelectric power with four major dams on the river at Bratsk, Irkutsk, Ust-Ilimsk and Boguchansk. Soviet authorities decided to build the dam at Bratsk in 1954. By the time the hydroelectric station was completed in the early 1960s, it was the world's largest hydroelectric dam (approximately 4,500 MW). Bratsk Dam on the Angara River. The hydroelectric dam on the Angara at Irkutsk, a little more than thirty miles northwest of Lake Baikal, was the first built on the river. Construction started in 1950 and finished in 1959 on the 660 MW facility.

" The dam was designed to be especially robust and stable, capable of withstanding a water column forty-two meters high; it would raise the level of the Angara up to that of Lake Baikal and then raise the level of the lake itself one and a half meters ." Irkutsk with the Angara River and dam The Lena River at Mokhsogollokh (July 2005), photo courtesy Alexander Khrabrov Lena Rive Delta The Lena (Ле́на) River in Siberia is one of the world's longest rivers. It originates in the Baikal Mountains, west of Lake Baikal , and flows first northeastward and then almost due north to the Laptev Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean). At the mouth of the Lena River is a large delta that is about two hundred and fifty miles wide and traversed by seven major branches of the river. The delta is frozen tundra for about seven months of the year, but from May through September it is a lush wetland; part of which has been designated the Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve. The Lena river is an important waterway and is navigable almost its entire length; it is a prime tourist location for steamship excursions.

The river freezes at different times of the year along its length, generally the Upper Lena begins freezing in the middle of October, and in early November--the Lower Lena. The spring ice break-up is accompanied by ice jams and a sudden rise in water levels often with very destructive flooding. The river level has been known to rise as much as thirty feet in one day as a result of an ice dam. Tradition has it that Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov) took his aka of "Lenin" from the Lena River, but that has never been conclusively proven. Most of the pre-1917 Marxist revolutionaries used all sorts of aliases, some connected with geography, others devised from other animal, plant or other personal sources. Maybe all the other good aliases had been taken, so Lenin opted for "Lenin." The Lena River was the location of substantial gold mining operations in Imperial Russia and the site of the Lena gold fields massacre of workers by the Russian army in April 1912 (See the new book by Michael Melancon, The Lena Goldfields Massacre and the Crisis of the Late Tsarist State). Workers originally struck the mining operations over their poor working conditions, foul food and low wages.

The companies involved, which had close ties with influential government, foreign and imperial family officials, refused to negotiate. After all, strikes were technically illegal in imperial Russia. The arrest of the strike leaders provoked a demonstration by the striking miners. Soldiers opened fire and hundreds of workers were killed and wounded (note the resemblance to Bloody Sunday of January 1905). Public outcry over the shootings led to increased opposition to the tsarist government and a growing strike movement on the eve of Word War I. There is still some gold mining along the river. Kolyma River The Kolyma (Колыма́) River, a bit over two thousand kilometers long, is located in far northeastern Siberia. It empties into the East Siberian Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. The Kolyma is solidly frozen to a depth of ten feet or so for much of the year; free of ice only from mid-June to mid-October. The town of Debin, Kolyma District, Magadan Oblast viewed through the morning mist over the Kolyma River, 8 September 2004; photo by Oxonhutch.

The Kolyma region is also notorious for the Gulag labor camp system established there in the 1930s by Stalin. Millions of imprisoned died in the area in the gold mining, lumber and other forced-labor camps. Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982) wrote his book, The Kolyma Tales, to document what went on in the Gulag. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his three-volume work The Gulag Archipelago, also wrote about those who toiled and died in the camps of Kolyma. There is now a monument to those who suffered in the Kolyma camps. The Mask of Sorrow is located on a hill above Magadan, Russia. Ernst Neizvestny, the famed Russian sculptor, designed the statue--he also designed Khrushchev's tomb. Ob River - 必应 Sign in Ob River The Ob River (Russian: Обь; IPA: [opʲ]), also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river.

It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Yenisei River and the Lena River). The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary. Ob River Names The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the As, Yag, Kolta and Yema; to the Nenets people as the Kolta or Kuay; and to the Siberian Tatars as the Umar or Omass. Possibly from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ap-, "river, water" (compare Persian āb, Tajik ob, and Pashto obə, "water"). Ob River Geography The Ob forms 25 km (16 mi) southwest of Biysk in Altai Krai at the confluence of the Biya and Katun rivers. Both these streams have their origin in the Altay Mountains, the Biya issuing from Lake Teletskoye, the Katun, 700 kilometres (430 mi) long, bursting out of a glacier on Mount Byelukha. The Ob's entire main course is within Russia, though its tributaries extend into Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.

The river splits into more than one arm, especially after joining the large Irtysh tributary at about 69° E. (Originating in China, the Irtysh is actually longer than the Ob from source to the point of their confluence.) From the source of the Irtysh to the mouth of the Ob, the river flow is the longest in Russia at 5,410 kilometres (3,360 mi). Other noteworthy tributaries are: from the east, the Tom, Chulym, Ket, Tym and Vakh rivers; and, from the west and south, the Vasyugan, Irtysh (with the Ishim and Tobol rivers), and Sosva rivers. The Ob zigzags west and north until it reaches 55° N, where it curves round to the northwest, and again north, wheeling finally eastwards into the Gulf of Ob, a 100-kilometre (62 mi)-long bay of the Kara Sea, separating the Yamal Peninsula from the Gydan Peninsula.

The combined Ob-Irtysh system, the fourth-longest river system of Asia (after Yenisei, and China's Yangtze and Yellow rivers), is 5,410 kilometres (3,360 mi) long, and the area of its basin 2,990,000 square kilometres (1,150,000 sq mi). The river basin of the Ob consists mostly of steppe, taiga, swamps, tundra, and semi-desert topography. The floodplains of the Ob are characterized by many tributaries and lakes. The Ob is ice-bound at southern Barnaul from early in November to near the end of April, and at northern Salekhard, 150 km (93 mi) above its mouth, from the end of October to the beginning of June. The Ob River crosses several climatic zones. The upper Ob valley, in the south, grows grapes, melons and watermelons, whereas the lower reaches of the Ob are Arctic tundra. The most comfortable climate for the rest on the Ob are Biysk, Barnaul, and Novosibirsk.

Ob River Human use The Ob is used mostly for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectric energy, and fishing (the river hosts more than 50 species of fish). The navigable waters within the Ob basin reach a total length of 15,000 km (9,300 mi). The importance of the Ob basin navigation for transportation was particularly great before the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, since, despite the general south-to-north direction of the flow of Ob and most of its tributaries, the width of the Ob basin provided for (somewhat indirect) transportation in the east-west direction as well. Until the early 20th century, a particularly important western river port was Tyumen, located on the Tura River, a tributary of the Tobol. Reached by an extension of the Ekaterinburg-Perm railway in 1885, and thus obtaining a rail link to the Kama and Volga rivers in the heart of Russia, Tyumen became an important railhead for some years until the railway was extended further east. In the eastern reaches of the Ob basin, Tomsk on the Tom River was an important terminus.

Tyumen had its first steamboat in 1836, and the middle reaches of the Ob have been navigated by steamboats since 1845. The first steamboat on the Ob, Nikita Myasnikov's "Osnova", was launched in 1844; but the early starts were difficult, and it was not until 1857 that steamboat shipping started developing in the Ob system in the serious way. Steamboats started operating on the Yenisei in 1863, on the Lena and Amur in the 1870s. In an attempt to extend the Ob navigable system even further, a system of canals, utilizing the Ket River, 900 km (560 mi) long in all, was built in the late 19th century to connect the Ob with the Yenisei, but soon abandoned as being uncompetitive with the railway. The Trans-Siberian Railway, once completed, provided for more direct, year-round transportation in the east-west direction.

But the Ob river system still remained important for connecting the huge expanses of Tyumen Oblast and Tomsk Oblast with the major cities along the Trans-Siberian route, such as Novosibirsk or Omsk. In the second half of the 20th century, construction of rail links to Labytnangi, Tobolsk, and the oil and gas cities of Surgut, and Nizhnevartovsk provided more railheads, but did not diminish the importance of the waterways for reaching places still not served by the rail. A dam was built near Novosibirsk in 1956, which created the then-largest artificial lake in Siberia, called Novosibirsk Reservoir. In the 1960s through 1980s Soviet engineers and administrators contemplated a gigantic project to divert some of the waters of Ob and Irtysh to Kazakhstan and Soviet Central Asian republics, replenishing the Aral Sea as well. The project never left the drawing board, abandoned in 1986 due to economic and environmental considerations.

Siberia - Ob River Siberia Testimonials Ob River From snow-covered tops of the Altai Mountains, past thousands of kilometres of thick taiga forests, boundless boggy areas and tundra plains, the mighty Siberian Ob River can be seen flowing towards the Arctic Ocean. The Ob is a two-horned river. It begins in the mountains with two large branches. The left river head – the Katun River – starts from the glacier at Beluha – Altai’s highest mountain. This rapid mountain river flows through narrow gorges rising in the summer due to an abundance of glacial melt-water and becoming shallow during other seasons. The Biya, Ob’s right arm, flows from the picturesque Teletskoye Lake which is referred to as Altai’s golden lake. Unlike the Katun, the Biya is a quiet river which is only sporadically obstructed by rifts and rapids. Following the junction of its arms the Ob passes through the vast Western Siberian Lowland turning into a great full-flowing river whose width reaches several kilometres. The river flows into the Gulf of Ob and the lower Salekhard town. The length of the river is 3650 km.

The Ob has the biggest catchment basin compared to other Russian rivers. The basin area is almost one million square kilometres and it is no surprise given that the river collects its waters from Altai and Kuznetsky Alatau mountains, the eastern slopes of Ural, endless steppes of northern Kazakhstan and the plains of Western Siberian Lowland. If you sail down the Ob from its origin and to the ocean, you can see the high mountains give way to low hills which turn into hilly steppes and forest steppes and then there is only taiga everywhere for thousands of kilometres which, in turn, yields to tundra – the only climate zone capable of tolerating the icy cold of the Arctic Ocean. The river bears the name of the Upper Ob until the Tom flows into it. Barnaul – the major industrial city and the center of the Altay Territory – is situated at the Upper Ob. Fertile steppes, the Kulunda and the Baraba, are spread out to the left of the river until the Irtysh. Just recently it was a wild land but people ploughed the soil and turn the grassy desert into a cultivated area.

Near the mouth of the Inya River the biggest Siberian city, and a major scientific and cultural center, Novosibirsk stands on both banks of the Ob River. The part of the river enclosed between mouths of the Tom and the Irtysh is called the Middle Ob. It flows through the boggy Siberian taiga. The vast moors spreading along the river’s left side bear the name of Vasyuganye; the area between the Ob and the Yenisei is called the Narym Territory. On its way to the ocean the Ob acts like a sponge that absorbs the water of the surrounding bogs. Occasionally, the high and steep edges of the plain (so-called “main land”) come close to the river. Following the fall of water, sandy beaches appear at the flat shores of the river; people call them “sands”. From the mouth of the Irtysh the Lower Ob begins. The Irtysh is the biggest and most abundant of Ob’s tributary. It is considered as one of Russia’s great rivers – and not without reason: its length is more than 4,000 kilometers. Many legends exist about the river since ancient times.

After having swallowed the Irtysh’s water the Ob becomes even wider and more powerful. From this point the river directs straight to the north and never changes this direction. The taiga flanks the river banks. Fir-tree, cedar, larch-tree, birch, pine and aspen are the main tree species. Their wood is used for the manufacture of various goods. There are many bogs in the Narym Territory. The Vasyuganskoye bog, the biggest of them all, spreads across five hundred kilometers of Ob-Irtysh interfluve area. It is wrong to consider bogs as a wasteland. Their economic value is very big. Bogs are inexhaustible deposits of fuel and fertilizers. The exploitation of the bogs may well result in enormous benefits. There are also major oil-fields in the Middle and Lower Ob: Samotlorskoye oil-field (Nizhnevartovsk) and Ust-Balykskoye oil-field (Nefteyugansk). The ancient Russian town of Surgut, founded as early as in 1593, is the place where the famous Surgut-Polotsk oil pipeline starts.

It is approximately in the center of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District – the Berezovo village – that the Ob leaves the taiga and enters the tundra. The ever-frozen ground area results in a dramatic change of the landscape. The forests disappear and there is only dull boggy plain covered with dwarf shrubs. Thus, flowing widely the Ob comes to Salekhard – the last city on its course. The city is an important river-port; there are always many boats, both Russian and foreign ones. The river’s estuary begins from the Big Yary Island. Here, the Ob divides into two arms and flows into the Gulf of Ob – the sea gulf that formed at the bottom of the plain. The Ob freezes in winter and stays caught in the ice for 180-220 days depending on how cold the winter is. In spring the river breaks free from the ice at its upper course. The large masses of melted water and broken ice flow down the river and act as a battering ram, breaking and splitting motionless ice and moving it to the shores. Sometimes the so-called ice-jams are formed in the water-course. The chaotic masses of ice block the course.

The river overflows its banks and floods the surrounding area. Sometimes there are catastrophic floods that bring much damage. In order to prevent such catastrophes the river bed is cleared by ice-breakers or with the help of explosives. The Ob is a major water way of Western Siberia. Its tributaries penetrate deep into taiga areas where it is very hard to get to by land. An enormous amount of cargo and passengers is transported via the rivers of the Ob basin; much timber is transported down these rivers. trans siberian railway Siberia Call (02) 436 98 240 International +612 436 98 240 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Sydney time UTC+10 Rivers of Asia, Landforms of Asia - Worldatlas.com LANDFORMS (Rivers) Rivers of Asia - Map & Details Dozens of significant rivers rise in Asia. Here we highlight a few on the map and (briefly) describe some of the most significant ones, including the Ganges, Indus, Lena, Mekong, Ob, Yangtze and Yellow.

Ganges The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus and is also a lifeline to millions of Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs. It is 1,560 miles (2,510 km) in length. Lena The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob River and the Yenisei River). It is the 11th longest river in the world at 2,734 miles (4,400 km). Indus The Indus River originates in Tibet and flows through India and Pakistan. It provides water resources for the economy of Pakistan - especially the Breadbasket of the southeast, which accounts for most of the nation's agricultural production. It is 1,800 miles (2,900 km) in length. Mekong The Mekong is the world's 10th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia.

Its estimated length is 3,050 (4,909 km) and it provides inland transportation for the millions living along its banks, and tributaries Ob The Ob is a major river in western Siberia, Russia. The Ob is used mostly for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectric energy, and fishing. It's 2,268 miles (3,650 km) in length. Yangtze China's Yangtze is the longest river in Asia, and the fourth longest in the world at 3,915 miles (6,301 km). The Yangtze drains one-fifth of the land area of the People's Republic of China and its river basin is home to one-third of China's population. Yellow The Yellow River is the second-longest river in China and the sixth longest in the world at 3,395 miles (5,464 km) in length. It's called "the cradle of Chinese civilization" as its basin – specifically, the Wei valley – was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilizations and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history.

The Lena River  Geography links The Lena is the 10th-longest river in the world, flowing 2,734 miles across the Far East regions of Russia, forming near Lake Baykal and flowing northeast to the Arctic Ocean. It empties in a 250-mile-wide delta at the Laptev Sea. The river is home to many kinds of animal and plant life but only for a few months out of the year; the rest of the time, the river is frozen solid. Among the animals that call this wetland home during the warmer months are ducks, geese, sandpipers, terns, and gulls. A fish called the cisco is thought to come only from this wetland. Marine mammals live there as well. The river flooded its banks in a big way in 2001, causing some of the worst flooding ever seen in Siberia. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Scientists had to blow up iceblocks that were blocking the river's flow in some place.

The Laptev Sea, into which the Lena River empties, helps keep the temperature of the world's northernmost regions regulated, through large blocks of ice that from from the Lena's outflow and then break off when the temperature rises at the river's mouth, drifting off to cool. Facts About the Lena River Length Ob River | river, Russia | Britannica.com Ob River list of cities in Russia Ob River, river of central Russia . One of the greatest rivers of Asia , the Ob flows north and west across western Siberia in a twisting diagonal from its sources in the Altai Mountains to its outlet through the Gulf of Ob into the Kara Sea of the Arctic Ocean . It is a major transportation artery, crossing territory at the heart of Russia that is extraordinarily varied in its physical environment and population. Even allowing for the barrenness of much of the region surrounding the lower course of the river and the ice-clogged waters into which it discharges, the Ob drains a region of great economic potential. The Ob and Yenisey river basins and their drainage networks. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The Ob proper is formed by the junction of the Biya and Katun rivers , in the foothills of the Siberian sector of the Altai , from which it has a course of 2,268 miles (3,650 km). If, however, the Irtysh River is regarded as part of the main course rather than as the Ob’s major tributary, the maximum length, from the source of the Black (Chorny) Irtysh in China’s sector of the Altai, is 3,362 miles (5,410 km), making the Ob the seventh longest river in the world. The catchment area is approximately 1,150,000 square miles (2,975,000 square km). Constituting about half of the drainage basin of the Kara Sea, the Ob’s catchment area is the sixth largest in the world. Physical features Physiography The West Siberian Plain covers about 85 percent of the Ob basin .

The rest of the basin comprises the terraced plains of Turgay ( Kazakhstan ) and the small hills of northernmost Kazakhstan in the south and the Kuznetsk Alatau range, the Salair Ridge, the Altai Mountains and their foothills and outliers in the southeast. There are more than 1,900 rivers within the basin, with an aggregate length of about 112,000 miles (180,000 km). The Irtysh , a left-bank tributary 2,640 miles (4,250 km) long, itself drains about 615,000 square miles (1,593,000 square km; a somewhat larger area than that drained by the upper and middle Ob above the Irtysh confluence); and some 70 percent of the whole basin is drained by left-bank tributaries. Similar Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano Ice forms on the Ob from the end of October to the second week of November, after which the lower reaches begin to freeze solid.

By the last week of November the entire river is frozen; the upper reaches remain frozen for some 150 days, the lower for 220. The thawing of the ice—which takes longer than the freezing—lasts from the end of April (upstream) to the end of May, and the spring drift (about five days in duration) produces considerable ice jams. The difference in level between high water and low is 25 feet (8 metres) at Novosibirsk on the upper Ob; it reaches 43 feet (13 metres) at Aleksandrovskoye on the middle Ob but decreases to no more than 20 feet (6 metres) at Salekhard near the mouth. The water is warmest in July, reaching a maximum of 82 °F (28 °C) in the vicinity of Barnaul. The Ob has the third greatest discharge of Siberia’s rivers, after the Yenisey and the Lena. On average, it pours some 95 cubic miles (400 cubic km) of water annually into the Arctic Ocean—about 12 percent of that ocean’s total intake from drainage.

The volume of flow at Salekhard , just above the delta, is about 1,500,000 cubic feet (42,000 cubic metres) per second at its maximum and 70,000 cubic feet (2,000 cubic metres) per second at its minimum, while for Barnaul , on the upper Ob, the corresponding figures are 340,000 and 5,700 cubic feet (9,600 and 200 cubic metres) per second. The average annual discharge rate at the river’s mouth is about 448,500 cubic feet (12,700 cubic metres) per second. Most of the water comes from the melting of seasonal snow and from rainfall; much less of it comes from groundwater, mountain snow, and glaciers. The waters of the Ob are only slightly mineralized: dissolved substances account for an annual outpouring of 30.2 million tons into the Kara Sea. The average amount of solid matter discharged annually by the Ob totals only about 50 million tons.

Plant and animal life Rich meadows extend in bands 1 to 2 miles (2 to 3 km) wide for great distances along the banks of the Ob and cover many of the numerous islands. Pine, cedar, silver fir, aspen, and birch also grow on the banks and occasionally constitute isolated forests on the higher ground of the floodplain. Large areas near the river are covered with willow, snowball trees (Viburnum), bird cherry (Prunus padus), buckthorn (Hippophaë), currant bushes, and wild roses. Of some 50 species of fish found in the river or in the gulf, the most valuable economically are several varieties of sturgeon and such “whitefish” as nelma (Stenodus leucichthys nelma), muksun (Coregonus muksun), tschirr (C. nasus), and peled (C. pelea); pike, burbot, Siberian dace, carp, and perch are also caught. The seasonal ice cover, however, causes depletion of oxygen in the water, killing many fish every winter in the reaches between the Tym confluence and the delta.

Fur-bearing mammals of the Ob valley include European and Siberian mole, Siberian and American mink, ermine, fox, wolf (in the taiga), elk, white hare, water rat, muskrat, otter, and beaver. Among more than 170 species of birds breeding in the floodplain are grouse, partridge, goose, and duck. People Politically, most of the Ob basin is within Russia, but its southern portion forms the northernmost part of Kazakhstan . Russians and other Slavs constitute the majority of the population, but there also are numerous non-Slavic peoples. These include the Kazakhs in the south, the Altay and Shor peoples of the mountains, the Tatars of the Irtysh basin, the Khanty (Ostyak) and the Mansi (Vogul)—whose autonomous district ( Khanty-Mansi ) occupies part of the taiga—and the Nenets , Nganasan, Enets, and Selkup peoples of the north. The valleys of the river are more densely populated than other parts of the basin.

Economy The Ob, one of western Siberia’s principal means of transportation, is navigable for about 190 days of the year on its upper reaches and for 150 on its lower. Both imports and exports are shipped along the river. Most goods are transported to and from it along the northern sea route, which stretches across the Arctic. The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the Irtysh at Omsk and the upper Ob at Novosibirsk. Railways to Kazakhstan from Novosibirsk and from the foothills of the mountains cross the upper Ob at Barnaul. The Ob’s immense hydroelectric potential is estimated at some 250 billion kilowatts. Three main stations have been built: one on the Ob proper, at Novosibirsk , and the other two on the mountainous reaches of the Irtysh, at Bukhtarma and Öskemen. Both industry and agriculture have been intensively developed in the Ob basin. Cities such as Omsk, Novosibirsk, and Barnaul are major industrial and manufacturing centres. The steppe zone, in the southern Ob basin, is the major producer of spring wheat in Russia.

The west Siberian oil and gas fields, located in the taiga and tundra zones of the middle and lower Ob, are the most important in Russia, contributing about two-thirds of the country’s crude oil and natural gas output. Study and exploration Although paleo-Asiatic peoples have inhabited the Ob basin for millennia, Russian explorers and adventurers first penetrated the area only toward the end of the 16th century. During the reign of Ivan IV (the Terrible), the Cossack folk hero Yermak led an expedition into the Ob basin (1581–84/85) that claimed vast expanses for the tsar. Settlements and forts were established at Tyumen (1586), Tobolsk (1587), Obdorsk (now Salekhard; 1595), and Tomsk (1604). The lower Ob was explored in the first half of the 17th century, and a navigation chart of that section was published in 1667. Russian scientists investigated the lower Ob during the Great Northern Expedition (1733–42).

For the next 150 years the river system was explored chiefly to foster the development of transportation. Detailed hydrologic observations and studies were initiated by the end of the 19th century and were pursued intensively during the 20th. During the 20th century Soviet scientists studied long-term climate change and the landscape evolution of this region and the adjacent Kara Sea. Ships docked at the port of Salekhard on the lower Ob River, northwestern Siberia. © Novosti Information Agency Ob River - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) The Ob is the westernmost of the three great Asian rivers of Russia. These rivers-the Ob, Yenisey, and Lena-flow northwestward across Siberia to the Kara and Laptev seas, arms of the Arctic Ocean. The Ob, without its great tributary, the Irtysh, is 2,270 miles (3,650 kilometers) long. The Ob-Irtysh waterway (from the source of the Irtysh to the mouth of the Ob) is 3,230 miles (5,200 kilometers) long.

This is the longest river system in Asia after the Yangtze River and the fifth longest in the world. Both the Ob and the Irtysh rise in the Altay Mountains. Article Contributors

Question: The Lena River, the Ob River and the Yenisei River in Russia flow into which large body of water?
Answer: THE ARCTIC OCEAN